The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

  By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH Sensitive Suzie comes home sulking desperately wanting to head straight for her room after a long day of managing everyone else’s problems.   She is exhausted from all of the confrontation and just wants to escape to her own little cocoon but knows that her family needs her so she puts off her alone time till later.   “Why can’t everyone just get along?” she says, “Life would be so much simpler if everyone just worked together instead of fighting all the time.”   But the distraction of her family manages to put a smile on her face and soon she decides that she really doesn’t need the alone time after all, just a few hugs and kisses from her kids do the trick.   However the frustration builds inside and while Suzie ignores it, the kids begin fighting over the last piece of garlic bread.   Before long she finds herself exploding over the garlic bread while her family looks at this unknown person who never seems to get...

By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH Have you ever spent time with a person who doubted nearly everything they did or how about a person who is confident in their speech or actions?   What if they grew up in the same household yet there this huge difference between the two of them?   How can this be? Erik Erikson in his eight stages of psychosocial development explains that between the ages of two and four a child learns either confidence or doubt.   His second stage of development, Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, recognizes the importance of the toddler to learn to do things or make choices on his/her own.   Too often, this time is marked by the toddler’s repeated statements of “I do it” or “by myself” as an attempt to gain what little control they can.   It is also marked by temper tantrums that seem to come out of nowhere, or do they? The Psychology.   A toddler is trying new things such as potty training, putting on their clothes, eating without help f...